The building was dark, full of a foul smell that she retched as her soft skin was dragged on rough stones.
"I will walk." she offered but as if the man could not hear her. They did not look at her or responded, but they continued dragging her. Each of them holding one of her hands and pulling her like a heavy sack was a puller.
She winced when another stone pierced her skin. She could feel the wetness and knew it was not water that covered her feet.
Her hair was a mess with the force and her hands stung with the force they were putting on her wrists.
The building was so dark that she would not believe it was noon even though she had felt the warmth of the sun just an hour ago on her skin.
The pace was so cold and dark as if it had not received the mercy of the moon, forget about the warmth of the sun.
"Ahhh!"
"Blergh"
"No…!"
Bella heard shrieks, screams, wails and cries that haunt the soul of any sane person for a lifetime.
She was trained to bear solitude, starvation and even scorns. She had been slapped, kicked and thrown out a few times but she was never haunted. She had never seen others bleed and she had never seen a naked woman forced on the ground before.
That was the scene that welcomed her when she noticed the first candle.
A naked woman was screaming while three men brutally handled her, mauled her and forced her. She closed her eyes, suddenly dragging felt better, even blessed.
"What do you have with you?" The men stopped dragging her at once when she heard footsteps coming closer.
Do not raise your head! Something whispered in her mind, jerking her but she obeyed. She could see the feet of the man who had approached her.
Next, she felt the stung as he held her hair and pulled them hard to see her face.
"Oh my! We have a new beauty here. Is she a witch?" The man sounded delighted and Bella noticed the crimson in his eyes. It was not dark like she had seen in the eyes of those vampires, but it was still red.
"Drag her to my room. I have arranged a party for tonight. She would be perfect entertainment for our guests." the image of the woman getting raped flashed in her eyes and she shrunk involutantrily.
Running was her first instinct but she endured. She could burn them, the restraints could be broken but.. It was a test. Someone was watching her! That whisper was not her hallucination.
"She is a special delivery for the lord. If we tainted her, the lord would be furious." the vampire gritted his teeth, not happy that he was rejected as he glared at the men.
Bella held her breath afraid to gain his attention when he clicked his tongue.
"Then you must hide her for her smell is intoxicating. It would only be a matter of minutes when all the hounds would come for her." he warned before returning to the woman and slapping her hard to take out his anger. Then he forced himself on her but she did not stay there long to see the torment.
Her captors started dragging her again. Many more.. She saw many more beasts forcing themselves on women.. Men and beating kids for leisure.
The wail and screams were like music for their ears. Many turned their heads to her, asked for her, demanded her but her captors were stern, only replying the same words again.
"She was a special delivery that could not be tainted." until each of them turned and left. But it only made her shiver again.
When she had thought of the honor, she was being a fool. For she had not thought about the method to gain that honor. Now that her captors had thrown her in a dark room on the ground covered with dirt, mud, feces and blood, all she felt was pain, fear and the dark mana slowly releasing in her blood and reaching her heart as if asking her, rebuking her for being silent.
Telling her that burning this entire building would be a matter of minutes. She could save herself but the saner part of her told her to endure. If she wanted love of her family, freedom from sins, she had to endure.
She forced herself to move and leaned on the wall as she forced a breath in her body. It brought all the stench in and Bella felt like retching again. But she took a deep breath and concentrated on things around her.
The room was large but she was alone there. Yet the wam blood told her someone was there and he or she might return once their torment would be over.
The cells were made of iron bars, so she could see other cells too. There were only a few witches. Rest of them were human, most of them were young girls, almost naked and injured.
Their eyes looked hollow. None of them turned to look when Bella was thrown into the cell as if they had seen the repeating scene more than enough time to lose interest in it.
"Who had sent her? I did not remember buying any slave or getting any demand from the palace.'' She heard a voice and bowed her head again when two men stood in front of her.
One of them was the captor who had dragged her here before. Another was new, by his feet and shoes, she could tell he was important. Nor that his authoritative tone leaves any doubts…
"The lord never refused a young maiden who could be a witch. Look at her silver hair." so the man could hear and speak. She had doubted it when it was the other captor who had replied all the time.
"But who had sold her? You must know we do not take anonymous deliveries."